Many forms of thermal management exist today all of which depend upon the principles of conduction, convection or radiation to move heat. Good thermal conductivity is required to permit heat transfer away from high density electronic components and devices such as integrated circuits. High thermal conductivity materials are conventionally used in heat transfer devices to dissipate heat from semiconductor circuits and systems. Elemental metals are not satisfactory for the semiconductor circuit systems in use today. This has led to the use of high conductivity heat transfer devices formed from composites or laminations of different materials fabricated into various structural assemblies which will possess the desired high thermal conductivity, strength and other needed properties.
The heat transfer device is physically connected between a heat source, which generates considerable waste heat, and a heat sink. However in many cases the heat source and heat sink are not in close proximity and one or both may not be easily accessed for interconnecting a heat transfer device. In these situations the heat transfer device needs to be malleable and flexible. Currently available heat transfer devices which have very high thermal conductivities relative to the thermal conductivity of elemental metals are not readily usable in these situations.
This invention also addresses the issues of cost to remove heat in space constrained areas where thermal management by conduction requires a material that can be easily configured to provide a low-density, flexible, thin cross-section for the movement and redistribution of heat loads from heat sensitive electronic components or systems to areas where heat may be dissipated.